South africa lockdown1/30/2024 However, as government revenues have plummeted, it has presented a new austerity budget which is likely to worsen the conditions of the poor and the working class.Īmong popular movements and activist networks, several different groupings have emerged, including the COVID-19 Working-Class Campaign, the Cry of the Xcluded (formed in February 2020 before the pandemic landed in South Africa), and the C-19 People’s Coalition. These measures have been belated, in some cases ineffectively implemented, and have hardly been sufficient in the light of the collapse of both formal sector work and informal economies. Initially, the government set aside large-scale resources to support businesses and buffer workers from the crisis, as well as to provide relief in the form of supplementary grants. Government regulations often appear as contradictory, arbitrary and are changed frequently, leading to confusion. In place of the carefully calibrated sequence of steps that were initially promised, government has over a few weeks and under pressure from every conceivable interest group, rushed to open all economic sectors, opening as well activities that are known to accelerate infections such as restaurants and church services, just as the numbers of infected and the dead are rapidly increasing. The lifting of the lockdown has been shambolic. This has exacerbated the profound economic crisis that South Africa was already facing – the official unemployment rate was 29%, but more realistically was close to 40% prior to the current crisis. More broadly, however, the lockdown has had a devastating economic impact, with many businesses left reeling, formal sector jobs lost and under threat, informal sector and survivalist activities of the unemployed and poor destroyed, and communities suffering from hunger and deep distress. The interval was used to build capacity in the healthcare system and ramp up testing (still a challenge) and community screening initiatives. The six-week lockdown curbed the spread of infections. On March 23, the government declared a national state of disaster and implemented one of the toughest lockdowns in the world – all of this when the number of infections was about 400, and deaths not yet in the 20s. The questions is, will this help him to consolidate his presidential power?Īlso Read: Fake News, Hiding Data and Profits: How COVID-19 Spun Out of Control in Brazil With the coming of the pandemic, Ramaphosa moved decisively to take charge, and the government adopted a science-driven approach, gaining high approval in the media and opposition parties, as well as internationally from the WHO and others. The change was welcomed by many in the middle classes, business and internationally, but Ramaphosa’s position in the ANC remained precarious, with the Zuma network retaining many positions of power. This saw the replacement of the profoundly corrupt, constitution-flouting and incipiently populist regime of Jacob Zuma by the suave former businessman Cyril Ramaphosa, promising to end corruption, restore ‘good governance’ and attract massive foreign investment. Governmental shifts in South Africa seem to have taken the opposite trajectory to much of the global pattern, following changes in the former liberation movement, the African National Congress, at the end of 2017. However, the country today has the fifth highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world – over 420,000 on July 24 – and the virus continues to spread, posing a challenge to the fragile, technocratic and neoliberal government on the one hand and social movements on the other. ![]() Popular organisations and the government both moved rapidly in mid-March to respond as the coronavirus pandemic hit South Africa. ![]() This is the third article in a six-part series that is looking at how the COVID-19 pandemic is playing out in the BRICS countries.
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